When it comes to ice-cream, vegan, banting, gluten-free and diabetic-friendly aren’t really the first thoughts that pop into mind.
But one little Port Elizabeth outfit is breaking the mould.
Walking into Il Gelato in Newton Park , the first thing you’ll notice is that it’s a riot of colour.
But dig a little deeper and you’ll find the staff are so enamoured of ice-cream that they are doing all they can to ensure that even those with complicated dietary requirements can also dig into the tasty treats.
Owner Tony Kruge says the staff set out to provide a range that includes vegan, halaal, dairy-free and diabetic-friendly ice creams.
“We’re trying to cater for the vegan market because the world is going in that direction now. Everyone is stepping away from meat for various reasons,” Kruge said.
When he starts talking about ice-cream he lights up with enthusiasm, proudly proclaiming that Il Gelato is one of only three Italian ice-cream shops in the country.
And according to him, the gelato they make – ice-cream made the Italian way – is far superior.
He explains that gelato has half the fat content of regular ice-cream and no vegetable fat is used, only fresh milk and cream from local cows.
Interestingly, gelato is also served at a warmer temperature than ice-cream, something Kruge says “won’t burn your precious taste buds”.
Kruge and his crew craft their flavours from100% fruit juice or pulp and whole ingredients that are baked, squeezed, crushed, chopped or blended in the factory.
He says the staff are always experimenting with new flavours.
“We’ve brought on flavours that we’ve actually designed.
“You’ll see outside there, we’ve got lavender growing. We make our own honeycomb, we fuse the fresh lavender with the honeycomb and we get a lovely lavender and honeycomb flavour.”
Kruge says while some ingredients are sourced locally they also import products from Italy.
But back to the vegan and dairy-free delights.
Those flavours can be somewhat wild and unusual. The ginger-, orange- and carrotflavoured vegan sorbetto proved a little too much for my palate.
Perhaps next time it would be a safer bet to try an appleand-mint or a strawberry sorbetto.
I’ll also happily stick to the peanut butter gelato which I loved from the very first bite, but then I’m not worried about any dairy restrictions.
For the uninitiated like myself, sorbetto is always dairyand egg -free and is made with sweetened juice, fruit puree, or water and is denser than gelato.
And while Kruge and his team keep experimenting with new flavours and styles of sorbetto and gelato, they also hope to make a positive impact on the environment.
“We use biodegradable packaging and spoons. We’re moving away from plastics,” Kruge said.
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